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HomeMy WebLinkAbout102312 o�QORr TOE V �O City of Port Townsend wA Meeting Minutes Parks, Recreation and Trees Advisory Board Tuesday, October 23, 2012, 4:30 pra - 6:00 pra City Hall Meeting Room 41 L Meeting called to order at 4:35 pm by President, Rosemary Sikes. Members in Attendance: Lys Burden, Debbie Jahnke and Ron Sikes Staff: Judy Surber and Steve Wright Visitors: Candine Gohn 11. Approval of Agenda —moved, seconded and approved by voice vote. III. Approval of Minutes—moved, seconded and approved meeting minutes from September 25, 2012 by voice vote. VI. Public Comment— The board decided to take public comment at the start of the meeting, as we had a visitor present to make comments, and we did not want to require that person to wait for the whole meeting to be conducted before she could speak. Candice Gohn, a Jefferson County Master Gardener, had prepared (and distributed copies of) a proposal to be funded by the JCMG Grant Program to label trees in Chetzemoka Park. Such labeling would be helpful to master gardener trainees and benefit visitors. Tags, nailed or screwed into the bark of trees, are most often used in arboretum facilities. Tags are usually 2-holed, approximately 2x4 inches in width/length. Board members suggested that a map of the tree trail would be useful, and Steve volunteered that it could be posted near the kitchen shelter. Putting together an iphone app may be a good idea too. (Lys will e-mail an electronic copy of the old Chetzemoka Park map that was published in the Leader many years ago as she had scanned and photo-restored the map image in preparation to conduct tree walks in the park last year.) V. Volunteers for our Parks— Three board members (Debbie, Sally and Lys) have agreed to help organize a volunteer program for parks. Steve Wright noted that PT has a good history of volunteerism in the parks: - the­butterfly-ladies"have taken care of the kitchen shelter at Chetzamoka for many-nears: - master gardeners take care of the garden on Sims Way: - Friends of the Libra n-maintain library grounds:and - skateboarders have been maintaining the skate board park in good order. With the recent reduction in City staff, the Parks Department now maintains 116 acres of park land, and street edge maintenance is slated for their staff of three people, as well. He said adoption and maintenance, especially of smaller and pocket parks, e.g. Baker View and Soroptimist Triangle Parks would be much appreciated. Right now he needs help with leaf raking at Mountain View Commons, Haller Fountain and Sakteboard Park. Lys said leaves were needed for sheet composing for expanding the PTHS Community Garden, and she could ask food bank gardeners to help. Bonnie Cora would be asked to organize volunteers for a Haller Fountain work party, and Steve thought the skateboarders may help with leaves there. Board members suggested we set up something on the park pages or city calendar to advertise any park work parties and investigate how to log in volunteer hours electronically for anyone who contributes labor at other times. (Apparently Kitsap County and WSU Extension have on-line volunteer hour recording methods.) VL Nomura Correspondence— Judy Surber reported that Terry Nomura had written to the City suggesting a 5-acre, wooded parcel north of town as an excellent site for a new park. The parcel is being offered for only $220,000. Judy noted that such a facilty would be well placed, as that area is under served by park land. Since the City does not have fiinds to dedicate to such a purpose at this time, funds must be sought from conservation fiitures, county taxes/working lands or other fiinding programs. The board agreed that it would be an excellent idea. VII. Staff Report—Judy Surber reported that the reduction in City staffing has also impacted the Department of Community Services (planning/building inspection department) quite hard, as Scotty Fisher has left and 20 percent of John McDonough't time has been cut. The department is now running on 3.8 staff The parks department will hire no seasonal staff and has been reduced from four to two maintenance staff DCS is still planning to undertake the rewrite of the Parks Functional Plan in 2013 with the joint sub-committee. Debbie Jahnke expressed concern that the findings from the public meeting at Blue Heron Middle School in June, 2010 (contained in the present plan language), did not accurately summarize public comment or consensus. She asked to review the materials saved from that meeting, especially since she serves on that sub-committee. Capital improvements at Parkside Park are on hold. The Rotary clubs in PT will be speaking to City Council about their fiunding efforts, and neighborhood volunteers are being sought for park maintenance. Admiralty Audubon is willing to purchase native plants (trees and shrubs) for the park at the conservation district sale in February. Some type of watering system will be necessary to establish the new plantings. VIII. Tree City USA Arbor Day Proclamation and Activity—The City Council will be issuing an Arbor Day Proclamation on November 5th and volunteers are planning to plant 7 trees at Kah Tai on November 11th. A press release will be drafted to publicize both events. February is a more appropriate month(than April) for planting trees here, so the 2013 proclamation and planting should be planned for that month, which also coincides with the conservation district sale. PRT should send staff suggested dates for staff planning and posting to the City calendar as soon as possible. Judy suggested another planting site for upcoming Arbor Day events to help beautify the Haines Street low-income cottages. IX. Kah Tai—Monthly volunteer work days are planned for November 11th and December 9th and will focus on weed pulling and garbage pick-up. X. Group Photo—tabled XI. Plantings at Parkside Drive—mentioned above. XII. Significant Trees of Poulsbo—Debbie Jahnke described the"Significant Trees of Poulsbo" program and passed around a sample brochure. She suggested again that Port Townsend should adopt a heritage tree program that was less restrictive than the current Landmark Tree designation (which has had no activity since adoption). Rick Sepler has apparently suggested that the City may need to amend the code, so the program will fiunction properly. Discussion about tree planting sites focused on planting trees on public lands, encouragement of celebratory/memorial trees in parks and City right-of- ways to help increase the number of trees in town. XIII. Future Meeting Agenda Items— park volunteer program, draft annual calendar, heritage tree program XIV. Board and Visitor Comment—re-scheduled and considered at the beginning of the meeting XV. Adjournment—Meeting adjourned at 6:00pm.